Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Go Ahead, Stroke My Ego

Last night I watched Missy Franklin win the gold medal in the 100 backstroke. This morning we swam a very backstroke-heavy Masters workout. I asked the coach if she was inspired by Missy Franklin and she said that it was purely by chance.

Today was totally my day to shine. Not only did we do backstroke (which I used to race back in the day, almost as fast as my freestyle), but we did kicking-intensive backstroke drills. Which meant I got to go first in my lane for most of the workout and feel all cool and fast. I think I can safely say I'm the strongest kicker in my Masters group. Sometimes it's a bad thing, and I overkick my stroke and mess up my form, but I think I'm getting better at not doing that.

At least these giant thighs and calves are good for something.
In the middle of practice, the coach called me over to the lane full of people who are really still learning how to do all of the strokes. She had them all get out of the pool and watch me do a 50 of backstroke to demonstrate the stroke. Most non-swimmers think you just rotate your arms around like a propeller. But actually, you're supposed to enter the water pinky-first, then curve your arm underwater, kind of like a S, and push toward your legs and down to propel yourself. It's really hard to explain, which is why she wanted to show them.

Here, let my boyfriend Ryan show you how it's done:
It's moments like today that make me want to get rid of all of this excess weight already so that I can really see what I'm capable of in the pool. I'm working on it. Strength training yesterday, swimming today, eating clean.